New Delhi:
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress MP from Rajya Sabha and Chairman of the parliamentary panel looking into drafting the anti-graft Lokpal Bill, has sought a week's extension for submitting the panel's draft of the bill.
However, sources say questioning the demand for an extension, Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari has asked Mr Singhvi to meet him tomorrow.
The purported draft - which does not include the lower bureaucracy and the CBI - has come in for flak from civil society activists led by Anna Hazare.
The team of civil society activists led by Gandhian anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, has said this is not acceptable. As a concession, the panel has proposed in its draft that the CBI director should be selected by the same committee that selects the Lokpal, to ensure minimum government interference.
There is also still division among members of the panel on the most contentious issue of bringing the Prime Minister under the Lokpal. Team Anna is adamant that the Prime Minister must come under the Lokpal's jurisdiction.
The BJP-led Opposition has complained that in the draft, now almost ready, "the sense of the House has not been taken." They are likely to give a dissent note on the non-inclusion of a Citizens Charter and the protection of whistleblowers - key points in Anna's Jan Lok Pal Bill.
All this could, of course, change in Parliament, since the Standing Committee's report is not binding on the government.